The UP Board of Regents (BOR) will meet tomorrow for a rare Monday meeting to select the next chancellor of UP Diliman (UPD), despite protests from the academic community on the timing and secrecy of the selection process which has been twice rescheduled in less than a week.
The UPD University Student Council (USC) on Friday evening blasted the inconsistent date of the chancellor selection, which was initially scheduled on March 30, per an administrative order of then UP President Danilo Concepcion. President Angelo Jimenez moved the selection to April 27.
However, the board meeting to pick the next Diliman chancellor was once again moved to April 18, according to an announcement from the UP Office of the Student Regent. And less than 24 hours later, the BOR rescheduled the meeting to its current date, April 3, due to the supposed unavailability of regents for the April 18 special meeting. The BOR meeting on Monday is classified as a regular meeting of the board, according to the meeting agenda sent to the regents.
“The UP community should have the highest deciding factor in this selection, and not only a mere few bodies that do not represent us,” read the USC’s statement. “The BOR shall be reminded that we are their constituents—the very stakeholders that will be directly affected in the next three years because of their decisions.”
Various student formations have formally petitioned the BOR to move the chancellor selection to April 20 as April 3 is already the start of the Lenten Break. The board, however, has yet to respond to the petitions, as of press time. On Friday evening, the website of the Office of the Secretary of the University (OSU) posted April 3 as a BOR meeting day.
A board meeting may only be rescheduled if either the board chairperson, Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Prospero De Vera III, or the board co-chairperson, Jimenez, is unavailable, according to the manual of operations of the OSU.
“If either of them is not available, the Secretariat finds the best time when most of the Regents are able to attend,” read part of the manual. “Once the new date is agreed upon by the Chair and Co-Chair, the BOR Secretariat notifies the rest of the BOR members on the new date of the meeting to ascertain that there is quorum.”
It is unclear whether it is De Vera or Jimenez who is unavailable on the previously set board meeting dates.
UPD has been without a permanent chancellor since March 2 when the term of the 11th chancellor, Fidel Nemenzo, ended. Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Ma. Theresa Payongayong has been designated officer-in-charge by Jimenez until the next chancellor assumes office.
The monthlong vacancy in the Office of the Chancellor is, by far, the longest in UPD history. Before 2023, the only time the Diliman chancellorship became vacant was in 2005 when then Emerlinda Roman assumed the UP presidency before her term as chancellor ended. It was a 19-day vacancy.
Absent a BOR-appointed chancellor, students’ readmission appeals, actions on disciplinary cases, policy decisions, and approval of infrastructure projects cannot be acted upon, per an administrative order issued by Jimenez on February 27.
A group of UPD faculty also expressed concern about the transparency of the selection process, considering that the search committee is scheduled to submit their report to the BOR on April 7. The search committee report, which is confidential, contains the three nominees’ strengths and weaknesses, as gauged by the body through a public forum and interviews with various sectors of UPD.
The search committee has only sent its report to the BOR last night, Student Regent Siegfred Severino told the Collegian.
“Indeed, time is of the essence, and with regard to the Chancellor selection, we require more time, not less,” the Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy said in a statement last March 25. “We demand the BOR to demonstrate its integrity by returning its meeting to its original schedule.”
To further amplify the clamor for transparency in the chancellor selection, the USC invites the UPD community to join the protest action tomorrow morning at Quezon Hall, coinciding with the BOR meeting.
“Democratic processes and good governance must be upheld in the transition of leadership, forged with unity on rights and welfare of the community. The roots of UP education must always be in the interests of the university’s stakeholders and socially critical in the service of the people,” the USC said. ●
